Virtual home staging

Recently a friend sent me an article from the New York Times.com Real Estate section about virtual home staging: “Staging, Ever More Virtual.” I was pleased to see that virtual home staging is becoming such a hot trend that it was written up in the Times!

Home staging is the art (or is it a science?) of preparing a home for sale, with the goal of making the home appealing to the highest number of potential buyers to help the property to sell more quickly and at a higher price.*

Staging focuses on improving the property’s appeal by adding a few carefully selected furnishings and accessories to transform it into an attractive, neutral space that anyone might want. By adding warmth, staging can help the potential homeowner emotionally connect with and “see” him or herself in the home. Plus, there are many people who simply can’t visualize furniture in a space without furniture actually being there. A few pieces of artfully arranged furniture can help the buyer determine scale in the room and imagine how their own furnishings will fit.

In the Times article, Vince Collura, the president of Gotham Photo, a company in New York City which offers virtual staging services, is quoted as saying:

“I’ve gone to dozens and dozens of open houses, and I’m always being told to use my imagination by a broker…. Customers don’t have imagination; they’re looking for the potential risks, not the possibilities.”

Staging is particularly important if a home is vacant, to minimize that hollow, echo-y, deserted feeling and help a potential homebuyer feel more at ease. In today’s buyers’ market, it’s an especially worthwhile investment. Buyers may assume that because a house is empty the owner needs to sell quickly, and will make a lower offer.

The beauty of virtual staging is that it can help potential buyers see the possibilities of a property by working the same magic as regular home staging — adding extra warmth and livability to a vacant property — but accomplishing this much more cost-effectively than renting and hauling in furnishings, rugs, accessories, etc.

Home virtually staged by 3DPlanView

My colleague Kay Nordby of 3DPlanView has a wonderful example on her website of how powerful this technique can be and how much value it can add. Using photos of an empty living and dining room, Kay added her beautiful furnishings and decor (see the “after” photo above). The images were then used by the real estate professional as a virtual model home, showcasing the property’s hidden potential.

CastleView 3D did a similar type of project a few months ago for a realtor in California whose client wanted to use his home’s potential view of the bay as a selling point by creating a virtual second story with a balcony. For that project, we created a 3D model of the home rather than digitally altering a photograph.

Gotham Photo, the company profiled in the NYT article, works their virtual staging magic with Photoshop rather than 3D modeling. The article says that their pricing “starts at” $100, but I’d be interested in knowing what the price was for the nice example they show on their website. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t $100!

As noted in the article, it’s important to keep things on the up-and-up by being clear with potential renters or buyers that digital modifications have been made to the space, either by including a notation on the image that it has been enhanced with virtual staging, or by presenting side-by-side “before” and “after” images. But as long as everyone is clear about what has been done and that no serious defects in the property are being hidden with tricky computer magic, virtual staging can be of real benefit to realtors, sellers, AND buyers.

If you’re interested in virtual staging for a home or property you’re selling, CastleView 3D would be happy to work with you!

*To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be any verifiable research on the ultimate value of home staging. One widely-quoted statistic claims that a study by Coldwell Banker found that staged homes realized on average a 6.4% increase over the list price, and another claims that a HUD survey found that staged homes sell for an average of 17.9% higher than unstaged homes! But unfortunately I was never able to find the actual study to verify either of those numbers. So, while it makes sense that staging can boost a property’s sales potential, it’s hard to quantify by exactly how much.

With all the stories and anecdotes about how valuable this has been for people, you’d think someone would be motivated to actually do the research to PROVE this, right? We know it’s true — it just would be nice to have a dollar figure to give to any “doubters”!